Forthcoming standards from two industry groups will more closely integrate the Internet, mobile devices and other consumer electronics with broadcast TV, executives from the Advanced Television Systems Committee and Motion Picture Experts Group predicted at the ATSC’s annual meeting. Work at the ATSC is under way on its 2.0 standard, which is backward-compatible with the existing TV standard, ATSC President Mark Richer said Tuesday. ATSC 2.0 has better video compression, and new features allow for audience measurement, digital rights management and “advanced” electronic program guides, he said. MPEG Chairman Leonardo Chiariglione summarized his group’s ongoing work (CD April 30 p12) on a variety of standards for any industry to use, including broadcasters.

Comcast won a stay of an FCC administrative judge’s decision (CD Dec 28 p2) that it move the Tennis Channel to the same programming package as the cable operator’s own sports networks. The Office of General Counsel’s stay may be short-lived, because commissioners have a draft order before them on the case. The Media Bureau Wednesday separately backed a complaint Comcast isn’t living up to the conditions of last year’s order letting it buy control of NBCUniversal, because Bloomberg TV isn’t near the channel positions of other news networks. (See separate report in this issue.)

Low-power TV stations with full-service protections are challenging FCC orders saying the LPTVs face loss of the Class A status keeping frequencies safe from interference. In responses this month and last to Media Bureau orders to show cause why they shouldn’t become regular LPTVs, at least 17 stations have said the commission would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the 1999 Community Broadcasters Protection Act and/or the Telecom Act by yanking the protection. Another four have said they plan to oppose the status loss, seeking more time to reply. The bureau in the last two weeks issued orders revoking the Class A status of eight stations that didn’t respond to the show-cause demands (CD April 30 p16).

An uptick this year is expected in broadcast mergers and acquisitions. Banks are beginning to lend again and some companies have the financial resources to take on debt, while others can use their stock to buy stations, agreed industry officials we interviewed. They don’t expect a blockbuster year for M&A. But they said TV station owners likely will keep adding to holdings, and radio deals may be fewer than for TV because those companies are still repairing their balance sheets after taking on too much debt in past years. Radio and TV executives and a lawyer who arranges broadcast deals said the outlook for M&A has improved a little since the summer, when borrowing had become harder (CD July 17 p9).

FCC Democrats didn’t back down from what staff recommended, approving over the opposition of the Republican member a requirement that all information now kept on paper in TV station studios’ political files go online. Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn backed the Media Bureau’s draft order at Friday’s monthly meeting that stations must include information on what they charge to air political spots in the public files the agency will host. Requiring posting of the lowest unit charge rate broadcasters must levy for political commercials in the weeks before federal, state and municipal primaries and general elections was opposed by Commissioner Robert McDowell. That was expected, but it was unclear in the days before the vote whether Clyburn in particular would vote for LUC reporting after broadcasters floated new proposals (CD April 25 p2).

The FCC must resolve some accessibility issues where advocates for the disabled and the TV and consumer electronics industries couldn’t reach consensus, participants in the recently completed work of an advisory committee said. The Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee wrapped up its work April 9, as mandated under a 2010 disabilities access law to finish the last three of four reports. A report on device and user interface accessibility, and one on getting emergency information had areas where VPAAC members couldn’t reach consensus. So the commission sought comment (http://xrl.us/bmhahx) Wednesday on those issues (CD April 26 p12), which participants in the panel said will inform the rulemakings the agency will undertake on proceedings that must, by law, be competed next year.

Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake predicted a “healthy” broadcast industry after the voluntary incentive auction the FCC plans to hold of TV frequencies and repacking of their channels. “We expect a healthy broadcast industry to emerge from the auction and the subsequent repack -- I expect healthier than it is today,” he said Wednesday in a speech that summarized his and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s remarks on spectrum to the NAB Show last week (CD April 18 p4). “The incentive auction is not for everyone,” Lake told a Media Institute luncheon, since many stations will want to keep serving viewers and see an exciting future for the industry.

Smaller public interest groups face new challenges in legal representation before the FCC and in court on communications issues because of the closing of the largest law practice devoted to representing nonprofits (CD April 4 p2). Industry lawyers and nonprofit officials said the immediate future of Washington representation for public interest groups without in-house lawyers isn’t bright on issues that will arise where counsel isn’t in place. Our review of the work done by other lawyers for public interest groups found nothing is making up for all of the loss of legal advice provided by the Media Access Project, closing its office May 1.

Sixteen TV-station owners and the NAB proposed uploading most of what’s now in studios’ paper political-ad files to fcc.gov, and updating it at least every other day during the lowest unit charge period before elections. An exception is for the LUC cost for each commercial, which broadcasters want to keep confidential to all but those who visit stations to see files. FCC members are continuing to consider if listing everything but online LUC information would be sufficient for disclosure purposes, industry and public-interest officials noted.

Some at the FCC are giving consideration to scaling back a draft order so TV stations can keep information on paper about how much political ads cost. Under some broadcaster proposals getting attention on the agency’s eighth floor, that data would exempt from public-file documents that must go online reporting of lowest unit charges for political spots, agency and industry officials said. They said Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn haven’t made any final decisions about whether to seek changes to a Media Bureau order tentatively scheduled for a vote at next Friday’s public meeting. But they said the potential for changes appears higher now than it did earlier last week, when Genachowski seemed set against any modifications (CD April 18 p7). Some still doubt the order will change.